ERIC ED456793: Graduate Education in Canada. CHERD/CSSHE Reader Series Number 2.

148 Pages·1997·2.7 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 456 793
HE 034 494
AUTHOR Gregor, Alexander D., Ed.
Graduate Education in Canada. CHERD/CSSHE Reader Series
TITLE
Number 2.
INSTITUTION
Manitoba Univ., Winnipeg. Centre for Higher Education
Research and Development.; Canadian Society for the Study of
Higher Education.
ISBN-1-896732-16-X
ISBN
PUB DATE 1997-00-00
NOTE
174p.; All papers offer a French version of the author
abstract. For other documents in the series, see HE 034
493-497.
AVAILABLE FROM
Centre for Higher Education Research and Development,
University of Manitoba, 220 Sinnott Building, 70 Dysart
Road, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3T 2N2 ($20 Canadian).
PUB TYPE
Collected Works
General (020)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC07 Plus Postage.
Case Studies; Doctoral Degrees; Foreign Countries; Graduate
DESCRIPTORS
Students; *Graduate Study; Higher Education; Masters
Degrees; Program Administration; *Supervision; Supervisors;
*Supervisory Methods; *Time to Degree
IDENTIFIERS
*Canada
ABSTRACT
This publication is part of a series that reprints articles
on a range of thematic issues published in the "Canadian Journal of Higher
Education." This collection focuses on graduate education in Canada. After a
preface and an introduction, the five articles are: "Graduate Student
Supervision Policies and Procedures: A Case Study of Issues and Factors
Affecting Graduate Study" (XXV:3, 1995)
(Janet G. Donald, Alenoush Saroyan,
and D. Brian Dennison); "Organization and Administration of Graduate Studies
in Canadian Universities" (XXIV:1, 1994)
(Edward A. Holdaway); "Supervision
of Graduate Students" (XXV:3, 1995)
(Edward A. Holdaway, Claude Dubois, and
Ian Winchester); "Predictors of Time to Completion of Graduate Degrees"
(Peter M. Sheridan and Sandra W. Pike); and "The Ph.D. Dilemma
(XXIV:2, 1994)
in Canada Revisited" (VIII:2, 1978)
(Max von Zur-Muehlen). (Individual
articles contain references.)
(SM)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
C)
CHERD/CSSHE
READER SERIES
Number 2
GRADUATE EDUCATION
IN CANADA
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BEST COPY AVAILABLE
CHERD/CSSHE
READER SERIES
Number 2
GRADUATE EDUCATION
IN CANADA
COPYRIGHT © 1997
Centre for Higher Education Research and Development
The University of Manitoba
and
The Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education
3
ISBN # 1-896732-16-X
4
CHERD/CSSHE
READER SERIES
5
CHERD/CSSHE READER SERIES
Number 2
GRADUATE EDUCATION IN CANADA
Edited by
Alexander D. Gregor
Centre for Higher Education Research and Development
University of Manitoba
Series Editor
Alexander D. Gregor
Centre for Higher Education Research and Development
The University of Manitoba
© 1997
6
Graduate Education in Canada
COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN CANADA
Table of Contents
Preface
1
Introduction
3
(taken from The Canadian Journal of Higher Education)
Articles
Janet G. Donald, Alenoush Saroyan, & D. Brian Dennison (1995)
Graduate student supervision policies and procedures: A case study
of issues and factors affecting graduate study. XXV:3
7
Edward A. Holdaway (1994)
Organization and administration of graduate studies
27
in Canadian universities. XXIV:1
Edward A. Holdaway, Claude Dubois, & Ian Winchester (1995)
Supervision of graduate students. XXV:3
53
Peter M. Sheridan, & Sandra W. Pike (1994)
Predictors of time to completion of graduate degrees. XXIV:2
81
Max von Zur-Muehlen (1978)
The Ph.D. dilemma in Canada revisited. VIII:2
99
7
Graduate Education in Canada
1
Preface
The CHERD/CSSHE Readers Series represents a collaborative partnership of the
Centre for Higher Education Research and Development and the Canadian Society for the
Study of Higher Education. The series is intended to bring together the best articles that
have been published in the Canadian Journal of Higher Education, in a range of thematic
It is hoped that the collection will provide a useful basis for the systematic
issues.
examination of those issues, on the part of both researchers and practitioners; and that they
will stimulate further investigation in those critically important areas of scholarship and
practice.
Alexander D. Gregor
General Editor
Graduate Education in Canada
3
Introduction
Among the many anomalies surrounding higher education research, one that con-
stantly surprises is the disjunction between the presumed "real world" importance of a
topic, and the amount (or dearth) of systematic research that has actually been carried out
on it. Something so fundamental to the nature and mission of the contemporary university
as graduate studies is an example in point. The twenty-five year history of The Canadian
Journal of Higher Education has seen only six articles published on the topic: barely
enough to fill one issue.
Until the 1960's, graduate studies in Canada tended to be a rather underdeveloped and
sleepy adjunct to the main endeavour of the university
its undergraduate teaching and
professional education.' Indeed, the majority of Canadians going on to advanced study
with a career in academe in mind tended to look to foreign institutions to complete their
studies
and did so without any particular blame being attributed to themselves or to the
domestic institutions. The frantic growth spurt of the Canadian university and the post-
secondary system that began in the 1960's, however, drew dramatic political attention to
the rather rudimentary state of the country's graduate enterprise. It was in part a matter of
not being able to meet the huge increase in staffing demand that characterized the period
and of not being able to meet it by such a margin that, for years following, there
remained the concern, both inside and outside the academy
that Canadians had in large
measure lost control of their own universities. The slack quite naturally had to be met by
a major importation of non-Canadian scholars, with a concomitant disruption of the tradi-
tional ecology of the country's academy. The concern lay in part at bitterness over hiring
with at least the perception of a bias toward networks of which Canadian
practices
applicants were just not part. More seriously, however, the argument was made that the
character of research and professional training that accompanied this massive importation
of scholarship was not meeting or reflecting the special needs and circumstances of this
country. Even more exacerbating was the perception that any serious consideration of
things Canadian was being derided as something parochial and second-rate by scholars
who measured their work by the norms of the international academic community. These
concerns were serious enough to prompt the Association of Universities and Colleges of
Canada to strike a prominent national commission on Canadian Studies, under the
9
Alexander D. Gregor
4
chairmanship of Professor T.H.B. Symons. His seminal report, To Know Ourselves, con-
firmed the problem
and in so doing raised a storm of controversy that ultimately spilled
into the domain of public policy and resulted in the federal government's introducing leg-
islation governing the search procedures for academic appointments, giving in effect first
preference to qualified Canadians.
At the same time as this quintessentially Canadian controversy raged, governments at
both the federal and provincial levels were coming to the gradual realization that gradu-
ate studies was more than just an incidental adjunct to the university enterprise, but was
rather something that was going to be increasingly critical to the economic and social
health of the country. And notwithstanding Canada's odd reticence and ambivalence in the
emerging realm of scientific and technological "R&D", business and industry were also
beginning to see the development of graduate studies
and its alter ego, the research
enterprise
as central to their own well-being. Here, a history that for a number of rea-
sons had caused the country's research base to be almost exclusively centred in the uni-
versity gave a special urgency to the health of the graduate enterprise.
With this new level of interest (and self-interest), universities and their public and pri-
vate supporters began to grapple with the issues of structure and support: support for the
graduate students themselves; and support for the research infrastructure (from libraries to
laboratories) that would have to underpin the enterprise. Unfortunately, the "literature"
associated with this mad scramble tends to be in the form of institutional and government
documents that had relatively little currency in the public domain. (A particularly valuable
example is to be found in the 1965 Report of the President's Committee on the School of
Graduate Studies, Graduate Studies in the University of Toronto, a blue-ribbon commit-
tee under the chairmanship of Boris Laskin.) Given the very different traditions and cir-
cumstances of the universities across Canada, it is not surprising that the mechanics and
structures emerged in quite different shapes and patterns
with distinct differences in the
degree of centralization and decentralization was to characterize the enterprise, and in the
relationships that would be established with kindred university offices (as, for example,
research administration). These and related issues have been examined by Edward
Holdaway in his article entitled Organization and administration of graduate studies in
Canadian universities.
Organizational issues did not end with the individual institutions getting their respec-
tive houses in order, however. A range of internal and external forces subsequently pro-
pelled the institutions toward various forms of inter-institutional and inter-sectoral collab-
oration, to new relationships with the private and public sectors, and to provincial and
regional coordination. Although these new thrusts have been the topic of a range of pol-
icy documents, research on their implications and consequences in the graduate enterprise
have yet to reach the pages of the Journal.
An increasingly complex world has even forced nascent national planning in the
realm of graduate education. The impact of communication technology, the advent of
entrepreneurial foreign purveyors of graduate programs, and the need to respect language
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